Slain 16-yr-old militant explains ‘need for Jihad’

Srinagar: Fardeen Ahmad Khanday, the 16-year-old who was among three Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants who attacked the CRPF camp at Lethpora in Pulwama, had recorded a video days before his death to explain the “need for Jihad against India in Kashmir”.
“Dear friends, what was the reason for me and my friends to have joined this path (militancy) which is laden with danger?” Khan says in the video. “If you accept the version of Indian forces, then it is because of unemployment (that) we joined militancy… but their version is no more than propaganda,” he says.
The video, which has gone viral on social media sites, has been shot at an undisclosed location. Khanday is seen sitting amid a huge cache of arms and ammunition including assault rifles and grenades.
Khanday was the son of a police constable. He lived in southern Kashmir’s Tral town. He was killed on Sunday along with a Kashmiri militant from Pulwama, Manzoor Ahmad Baba, while fighting government forces at Lethpora. He had joined militant ranks only three months ago.
“By the time this video reaches you I would be a guest in heaven,” Khanday says in the video. “Dear watchers, Islam is a complete way of life and Jihad is also farz (mandatory) for a Muslim like Namaz, Roza and Hajj,” he says.
“At a time when Muslim lands are being occupied by non-Muslims and Muslim populations are suffering and when women are not safe, Jihad becomes mandatory,” he says.
In a speech laced with holy references, he asks: “Dear friends, hasn’t Kashmir been occupied forcibly by India? Isn’t life and faith of Kashmiris under threat? Which cruelty hasn’t been inflicted upon Kashmiris? Hasn’t the chastity of our mothers and sisters been torn apart in Kashmir? Innocent Kashmiris have been jailed for years together in jails… thousands of youth have been disabled while hundreds of our mothers are widows now.”
He says that thousands of Kashmiris have been buried (in mass graves) and they remain unidentified.
“The resources of Kashmir, on which Muslims of this land have their rights, have been snatched from us,” he says about rivers and other resources of Kashmir. “The fascist rulers of India are looting Kashmir and nourishing the Indian populace.”
“When all this happens,” he says in his address to his “friends”, “there is a call for Jihad as said in holy Qur’an… I and my friends listened to the call and joined the battlefield.” “Jihad,” Khanday asserts, “will continue till the last occupying soldier is present in Kashmir.”
Explaining the aim of JeM in its fight for establishment of Islamic state, Khanday refers to Ghazwa-e-Hind (Fight for Hindustan). “This fight won’t stop with martyrdom of Mujahideen; Ghazwa-e-Hind is yet to come,” he says. “Muslims in India are living a life of destitution.”
He also refers to Babri Masjid and the sacrifice of JeM militants for it. In chaste Urdu, Khanday ridicules claims of government agencies about the extinction of JeM ranks from the Valley. “The JeM – Lashkar of our Prophet (SAW) – will never end,” he asserts. Khanday says he believes that India “will face defeat in Kashmir at the hands of JeM militants”. “This has been accepted by DG BSF himself, who concedes that Fidayeen of JeM can’t be controlled.”
Referring to attacks on Pathankot, Nagrota, Tanghdar, Khanday says, “Jaish-e-Muhammad is impossible to stop.”
He says that “Afzal Guru squads of JeM” were behind the recent Fidayeen attacks on Humhama and Pulwama police lines.
In affluent praise of JeM chief Masood Azhar, Khanday says, “It is because of the JeM Ameer that Jihad is more popular now.”
Addressing Kashmir’s youth, he says, “Azaadi (freedom) does not come without sacrifices.”
In his concluding remarks, Khanday says, “Those doing politics on the blood of Kashmiri martyrs, for the sake of power, can’t be well wishers of this nation…. When the time will come, they will sell this land and nation for their interests,” he says and appeals for “more Fidayeen attacks”.
J&K Police recently said that slain JeM divisional commander Noor Muhammad alias Noora Trali was behind the revival of JeM in Kashmir.
He, too, belonged to Tral.

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Launched in May 2012, Kashmir Reader is one of the leading English language newspapers of Jammu and Kashmir. It’s published daily from Srinagar by Helpline Group, which earned a name and fame in serious journalism